The Italian National Project of Astrobiology—Life in Space—Origin, Presence, Persistence of Life in Space, from Molecules to Extremophiles

Abstract

'Daniela Billi' 'Amedeo Balbi' 'John Robert Brucato' 'Beatrice Cobucci-Ponzano' 'Giovanna Costanzo' 'Nicoletta La Rocca' 'Marco Moracci' 'Raffaele Saladino' 'Giovanni Vladilo' '' 'Niccolò Albertini' 'Mariano Battistuzzi' 'Julien Bloino' 'Lorenzo Botta' 'Piergiorgio Casavecchia' 'Alessia Cassaro' 'Riccardo Claudi' 'Lorenzo Cocola' 'Alberto Coduti' 'Paola Di Donato' 'Ernesto Di Mauro' 'Luca Dore' 'Stefano Falcinelli' 'Marco Fulle' 'Andrea Lombardi' 'Giordano Mancini' 'Michele Maris' 'Luisa Maurelli' 'Giuseppe Murante' 'Rodolfo Negri' 'Claudia Pacelli' 'Isabella Pagano' 'Davide Piccinino' 'Luca Poletto' 'Giorgio Prantera' 'Cristina Puzzarini' 'Sergio Rampino' 'Caterina Ripa' 'Marzio Rosi' 'Monica Sanna' 'Laura Selbmann' 'Laura Silva' 'Dimitrios Skouteris' 'Andrea Strazzulli' 'Nicola Tasinato' 'Anna Maria Timperio' 'Andrea Tozzi' 'Gian Paolo Tozzi' 'Livio Trainotti' 'Piero Ugliengo' 'Luigi Vaccaro' 'Laura Zucconi'] Sunt qui scire volunt ut aedificent… et caritas est Bernard de Clairvaux The “Life in Space” project was funded in the wake of the Italian Space Agency's proposal for the development of a network of institutions and laboratories conceived to implement Italian participation in space astrobiology experiments. Of primary concern for this project is the study of the origin of life in the Universe, a focus that will promote investigation into prebiotic chemistry in various possible scenarios, whether in polar or nonpolar solvents (e.g., Titan's environment). Such results will link with study of the effects of simulated space conditions on possible chemical biosignatures. The limits of life as we know it will be investigated in ground-based experiments with microorganisms that have already demonstrated their resistance to extreme environments on Earth and to real or simulated space conditions. The potential survival of microorganisms will also be examined with up-to-date molecular methods. The ability of some microorganisms to produce atmospheric and surface biosignatures when exposed to simulated conditions will be tested and compared with the possible existence of biosignatures on potentially habitable exoplanets.